Crappy EDM act The Chainsmokers mash selves up with Nickelback

Photo: Kelly Sherin

If you’re 15 or so or listen to top 40 radio, you’ve probably heard The Chainsmokers. The young bro-y EDM duo had the #1 song for a ridiculous 12 weeks in a row with “Closer,” the Blink 192-referencing song that is so slight that it’s easy to forget even as you’re listening to it. An article this past Monday on Esquire compared the duo to Nickelback. Essentially, the article, which definitely throws shade on both acts, says that they’re similar in that they’re watered-down, cliche-ridden distillations of what came before (post-grunge and EDM, respectively) made to be mass appeal as possible and remarkable in their generic-ness. Not to mention that both acts have no problem being sexist, either:

The problem is, like Nickelback, The Chainsmokers sell their lowest-common-denominator sound using shameless sexism. Let’s look at their first Number One single, “Closer,” a duet between The Chainsmokers’ Drew Taggart and Halsey. It’s about him running into an ex, having sex with her in a car, then realizing he hated her the whole time. Then there’s their breakthrough single, “#Selfie,” which proudly mocks women taking pictures of themselves. (Compare those songs to the 2008 Nickelback hit “Something in Your Mouth,” with lyrical gems such as the following: “You’re so much cooler when you never pull it out / ‘Cause you look so much cuter with something in your mouth.”)

The article goes on to say that Nickelback became the downfall of early 2000’s rock music, which is to say that with the exception of 3 Doors Down, we haven’t really heard of many rock bands from that era that have stuck around. Taking that into 2017, the article says that EDM is also experiencing a slowdown, with tickets to festivals not selling as well, a glut of soundalike acts, and sales growth falling. Will Chainsmokers become the next Nickelback, universally panned for all that is wrong with music? That remains to be seen, but the two seem to not care, as evidenced by their Tweet that they left yesterday mashing up their song “Paris” with Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me. So here’s two acts to not care about, and we’re sorry.”